~ The everyday adventures of a young woman obsessed with literature.

Here is one of my favorite poems by one of my very favorite poets, e. e. cummings. One of the most difficult lessons that I have learned in life is that it is important to let things go that happened in the past. This not just for the good of the person that hurt you, but also because, by holding on to pain and anger, you stop love from coming into your life. Enjoy!

let it go – the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise – let it go it
was sworn to
go

let them go – the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers – you must let them go they
were born
to go

let all go – the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things – let all go
dear

I was never very good at understanding poetry, but then last semester I took a Modern American and British Poetry course, and now I cannot get enough of it. I have since then taken all the books of poems and written down my favorites in a journal. Where is a better place to share these poems and why they are important to me than here.

Here is a poem, not by one of my favorite poets, but about one of my favorite themes.

I absolutely adore this poem and the way Williams is able to present a reason for hope. Despite the fact that the branch is broken, spring is coming again, and will always come again. His juxtaposition through diction, such as “stiff” and “old” with “white” and “sweet,” parallels the way in which we can so easily feel an extreme sense of hopelessness and despair, but can have trust that we will have happiness once again. We will be renewed once again, for pain does not last for ever. Suffering does not last forever. By using creation, nature, the seasons, Williams creates a symbol that we can continue to see through out our lives to remind us that just as spring comes again, so does relief, so does happiness, so does life.

I have no idea what happened this winter break. Last break I made a whole stack of books to read and got through more than half of them. This winter break however, I am already have way done with my break, and I have only finished one book. I suppose in my defense I have been working like crazy and the holidays were busier than I thought they would be, but it still surprises me.

The book I read this last week was Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks. I recieved it in my stocking this Christmas, and even though I had began A Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, I took a few days aside to read it. One reason I put my other book aside is that I knew I would be able to finish Safe Haven quickly (Who doesn’t like that kind of an ego boost?). I also knew that I would love it because what single girl doesn’t love the North Carolina love stories that Sparks has been feeding us for the last decade?

The novel is centered around Katie, a young woman that has recently moved to the quiet town of Southport with the desire to start fresh. From the beginning it can be seen that she is on the defensive and does not feel able to trust others, but over time you see her walls come down as she opens up to her neighbor turned friend, Jo, and the general store owner, Alex. As the novel progresses, you discover what caused Katie to be the way she is and one aspect of the novel that keeps you reading is the desire to see her recover from those past hurts.

I read this book in two days. It was so good and I could not put it down. I would recommend it to any female reader and perhaps a few guys, and I will definitely read it again and again throughout my life.

I am very glad I got this novel by Sparks at this moment because it is the next of his books that will become a film. The trailer has been released and the movie opens on Valentine’s Day 2013 staring Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel.

When I think of Myspace, what comes to my mind is a flood of high school memories filled with awkward picture angles, customizing my profile page, and the moment when everyone began to post about switching to Facebook. But that is the past. Recently Myspace has been bought by a group of investors, including Justin Timberlake, from NewsCorp. The investors have focused on giving Myspace a completely new look and feel. Instead of being focused on social media and connections, which would force it to compete once again with the dominant Facebook, it is focused on music and entertainment. The site has not launched yet, as they are still working out some final glitches, however you can request an invite, or if you know someone with an account, they are allowed to invite a handful of people at specific times.

I was lucky enough to get an invitation and set up an account to check it out. I am addicted already. It is in no way similar to how it once was, other than for the similar logo. The site lets you make connections with bands that you already love and helps you find new bands that are similar to the ones you have connected to by listing them on the bottom of the band’s page. Some of the amazing benefits of the page are that once you find the bands that you like, you can connect to any of the songs that they have posted onto their page. Once you connect to the song, it is put into your library where you can listen to it at any time. You are also able to make mixes of your songs and share them with the people that you are connected to. Another aspect of Myspace that is helpful, is that you can click an “Events” link on the musicians page which shows you all upcoming shows. You can then be taken to the venue’s ticketing page by clicking on the link for the show you would want to go to. There is also a radio function for each band if you would rather find new bands that way instead of surfing the site.

It is similar somewhat to both Pandora and Spotify, but has yet to use advertisements inbetween songs. It will be interesting to see which route they will take in dealing with advertisements and to see how they compete with Pandora and Spotify. I have not used Spotify, but I find Myspace much more personal and interesting to navigate that Pandora.

In the Preface of the novel, Arthur Gordon Pym describes how he was convinced to publish his stories of travel even though he doubted anyone would believe them to be true.

“He strongly advised me, among others, to prepare at once a full account of what i had seen and undergone, and trust to the shrewdness and common sense of the public- insisting, with great plausibility, that however roughly, as regards mere authorship, my book should be got up, its very uncouthness, if there were any, would give it all the better chance of being received as truth.”

This semester has been crazy and clearly I have not been posting very much. So this is me trying to be optimistic. I am going to start posting word of the day’s from the readings that I have to do for my classes. There are always words that I do not know the exact definition for, and therefore this will be a great way for me to improve my vocabulary and post on a regular basis. I really hope this works.

This morning the Los Angeles Times reported the death of Science fiction author Ray Bradbury, most famous for his novel Fahrenheit 451. Here is the article by former staff writer for the L.A. Times, Lynell George. Bradbury was 91.

This Memorial Day, I was lucky enough to go to a local’s beach in Laguna Beach with a good group of my friends. I packed all of the beach necessities; waters, snacks, sunglasses, sunscreen for your body, sunscreen for your face, a hat, and of course… books to read. Unfortunately, I brought read-in-a-coffee-shop books, not read-at-the-beach books. I had packed Sense and Sensibility as well as Erasing Hell. Now I really cannot wait to read these books and am already a third of the way through Sense and Sensibility, however what I needed was a book that I could get lost in but one that wouldn’t take all of my brain power. So this week I read Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch.

I really enjoyed this book, but it was not what I expected. I had assumed it was going to be something like Gossip Girl meets the dirty South. However, the plot is not nearly as dramatic as Gossip Girl‘s. Also, the setting moves from South Carolina up to New York City. The novel follows Sarah Walters, a Camellia member who is born with the expectation not only to participate in Cotillion, but to also live a Camellia life with the perfect husband, job, and home. In each chapter she moves through the different parts of her life, different cities of her life , and different romances in her life. Each one holds a different mistake that she made and a different life lesson that she learned. I could not put this book down and easily finished it in just a few days.

I would recommend this book to any young woman that needs a beach read to give their mind a break from classical books, stress, or just life in general. There is a bit of sexuality in it, so this would definitely be PG13. Besides that, this book is amazing and definitely shows the reader that she should live life not trying to please others or gain the ideal life that others have created, but to focus on living the life that will make her happy and that will give her joy. It also stresses the importance of family and friends by showing those around Sarah that know the good and the bad about her and yet still stand by her side no matter what.

F. Scott Fitzgerlad’s The Great Gatsby must be one of my top ten favorite novels. I have read it 3 times for classes since High School. Fitzgerald so easily presents the seductiveness of the American Dream and the desire for material possessions, but then highlights the destructiveness that walks hand in hand with this dream. Since it is one of my favorite novels, I of course am extremely excited and have been anticipating the release of the newest film adaptation.

I first became very excited and began to have high expectations when the cast list was slowly released, character by character. And what a cast it is! Let’s start with Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby, because who hasn’t fallen in love with DiCaprio at one point in their life. Whether it was as Romeo in Romeo + Julietor as Jack Dawson in Titanic or as Amsterdam in The Gangs of New York, he has been with us through film in one way or another taking on challenging and unforgettable roles for the last 20 years. Then, Carey Mulligan gets thrown into the picture. I have loved her since her role in Pride and Prejudice as Kitty, and realized her true talent in An Education and followed her growth since then, so I couldn’t be happier to see her cast in this film. She is playing Daisy Buchanan and this role will really show Mulligan’s abilities as an actress if she can pull it off well. Finally, add in Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway. I loved him in Pleasantville, but have not been very wowed by him since then, therefore I hope to be impressed by him in this role. Wrap that all up with the director of Baz Luhrmann, known for Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge. Those are two of my favorite films and I cannot waitfor this next one!

I am a British Literature fanatic… obviously! However, last spring semester in Junior College I had to take A Survey of American Literature and was introduced to many amazing American authors. I really delighted in reading Alice Walker after I read her short story, “Everyday Use.” It is about two sisters who take different paths in life and how their lives effect each other from that point on. I really enjoyed that story and have always wanted to read Walker’s novel, The Color Purple. It was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, so of course it was bound to be good. However, I did not realize how amazing I would find it. It only took me 3 days to finish it, and with how busy I have been that goes to show how addicting it was.

I could not put it down. I just had to find out what was going to happen to Celie and Nettie, two African American sisters that stay in touch by writing letters to each other. The two are separated once Celie is married off as a teenager and Nettie, with no other choices, becomes a missionary in Africa. They are able to keep pushing forward despite life’s challenges through their faith that the other is still alive and well.

There was a good amount to the novel that I did not expect and made the book so very intense and suspenseful. To start, there was a large amount of graphic scenes, including rape scenes. Alice Walker was able to capture the moment of Celie’s life where her innocence was robbed of her in a very subtle way at the beginning of the novel. There were also some flashbacks that included lynching and a scene where a friend of Celie’s is beat up by the police. These scenes, though graphic, made the book much more realistic and made you feel so much emotion for the characters and what they were dealing with. There was also a lot of historical context in the novel concerning Africa and the actions of the British government towards it. I knew that Nettie went to Africa, but I did not expect there to be as much detail about the problems that were going on there. Alice Walker brought attention to the injustices that Africans were forced to live with even after slavery was taken out of the picture. Lastly, there was a lot of spirituality in the novel. I was expecting this of the dedication at the beginning of the book, but when Walker mentioned “Spirit,” I had assumed it was the Christian Holy Spirit. Let’s just say that I was wrong.

Overall the novel was marvelous. It had the perfect combination of family loyalty, friendship, social criticism, and identity crisis. The use of vernacular is also astounding and quite impressive. It got to the point where I would have a southern accent if I read it for too long at once. The only thing that should stop someone from reading it is the graphic content. However, that should only stop you if you are under the age of 14, or have the mindset of someone under the age of 14. Other than that, I would recommend this book to everyone! It is just so great and I would probably read it again if I didn’t have 20+ unread books in my room.

There is also a movie with Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg from 1985 directed by Steven Spielberg that I am set on seeing. The story was also made into a musical and is possibly going to be remade into a movie in 2013.